Peat moss is a highly utilized soil amendment. Its ability to hold moisture and provide the horticulture industry with a safe, reliable growth medium is well known. The peat moss industry has grown to large-scale annual sales and can be found in most landscape supply stores, home improvement stores, garden centers and nursery supply wholesalers. In spite of all the success, the peat moss industry faces substantial challenges possibly redefining the industry.
Peat is mined from large plots of land commonly identified as peat bogs. Many of these bogs are located in southern Canada and extend into the hundreds of thousands of acres. There is no immediate shortage of peat. There are, however, external pressures creating tension in the peat industry. Peat bogs comprise specific ecological segment of the wetland habitat—supporting insects, amphibians, plant life and more. Bogs are inherently wet and must be drained for harvest. Once drained, the ecology of a bog is lost. New bogs can grow in about 40 years, but replacing an ancient bog, e.g., 10,000 years old, is simply not possible. It may well be that peat moss bog will be protected areas.
Peat mining is sensitive to harsh and wet weather. Heavy rains can affect and even halt mining operations until the weather has turned. In a particularly wet season, the entire industry can experience a shortage of peat and associated increase in price. This can present nurseries and suppliers with few options, e.g., little choice in finding an alternative to peat.
The price of fuel has and will likely continue to increase and for any business in the transportation of materials, e.g., peat, a significant financial impact results. Since most peat is harvested some distance from its site of use, e.g., most of North America's peat moss comes from Canada, shipments have to be sent long distances sometimes traveling over 2,000 miles to their final destination. This not only creates financial pressure, but also increased truck traffic that could best be served by more local markets.
Unfortunately, heretofore there simply has not been a satisfactory replacement for peat moss. The subject mater of the present disclosure addresses such concern.
The dairy and cattle industry has as it primary products milk and meat necessary to such production, especially in the dairy industry, large amounts of animal waste, i.e., manure, result as a byproduct. Management of the manure byproduct must address environmental concerns as such cannot be simply discharged into the environment.
In recent years, manure byproducts have provided an energy source. More particularly, methane is a primary component of fresh manure. Interest in capturing this methane for use in renewable power projects has driven new manure processing technologies and facilities. These facilities, known collectively as anaerobic digesters, process manure through a storage system ranging from four to 30 days processing time depending on the technology used. Generally, bacteria inside the system break down organic matter in the absence of air to produce methane as a primary product of the digesting process. In addition, digesters produce liquid and solid fiber as byproducts.
Further processing and use of such digester byproducts have not yet found a broad spectrum of commercial value, however the subject of embodiments of the present invention contribute to a spectrum of such commercial value, especially the fiber component thereof.